We all know what heroism looks like. It’s a soldier risking his life to save his buddy’s. It’s the police officer and fireman running toward the danger, not away from it. And I’d add to that: It’s loving families who are willing to open their homes and their hearts to children who need both.

A few weeks ago, Jean and I, and about 60 others, were in Israel with Ray Vander Laan, the host and teacher of Focus on the Family’s That the World May Know series.

Have you noticed that children often possess profound sensibility? Amidst their innocence there can be a purity and clarity of thought, an ability to see through the competing forces of propaganda that can corrupt and distort reality.

They see what many more “enlightened” people miss.

Such was the case when a 12-year-old daughter of a Focus on the Family staff member asked her mom last week about Colorado voting to approve doctor-assisted suicide.

For context, the passage of Proposition 106 made Colorado the sixth state in the country to allow doctors to prescribe lethal drugs for some patients for end their lives by suicide.

By the end of Sunday night’s presidential debate, I was struck, like most people, by the sad and sordid spectacle of what has become one of the most acrimonious and distasteful campaigns in contemporary American politics.

On one side of the hall stood the Republican nominee attempting to dismiss his recorded claims of sexual assault on a woman as mere “locker room talk.”

In reality, the actions described in those tapes from 2005 were not just lewd and crude banter.

It’s a problem so big that some experts are calling it a public health concern. It impacts both a person’s emotional and physical wellbeing.

And while it can affect most anyone, this condition especially targets the elderly.

The problem I’m talking about?

Loneliness.

Complicating the issue of loneliness is that there’s a stigma around it. Some people might think loneliness is due to a “social weakness, or an inability to stand on one’s own,” according to a recent New York Times article on the topic.

The catastrophic flooding in Louisiana is the worst U.S. disaster since Hurricane Sandy, says the Red Cross. At least 13 people are dead and 40,000 homes are damaged, according to reports. Some 86,000 people have already applied for federal disaster aid across the disaster area, which spans across more than 20 parishes.

To make matters worse, the forecast calls for scattered storms, and Louisiana’s flat topography will make for a very slow recovery.

Author, blogger and Louisiana resident Sara Horn, who was recently a guest on our broadcast, described the destruction:

There are few events in life that bring more excitement to a couple than the anticipation of a new baby. The height of that joy is rivaled only by the depth of heartache that comes with a troubled pregnancy.

Josh and Laura had three children under five and were pregnant with their fourth. Each of the first three pregnancies had progressed without complication.

But the fourth…

Call it a mother’s intuition – that mysterious and beautiful bond between a mother and her baby that not only connects them physically, but at a heart level.

A couple of weeks ago, I shared my concern that America seems to be sinking to a new low in race relations. The media has highlighted in graphic detail just how fractured our culture has become.

Even in times when our country has been at its most unified, racial division has remained an unresolved schism bubbling just below the surface. In the wake of severe racial strife over the past couple of years, the “Black Lives Matter” movement emerged, only to be quickly countered by “Blue Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” groups.

The people of Dallas are in mourning today and with them, all of America as well.

That a rally purported to serve as a peaceful protest to police-involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota (read my statement on the deaths on Facebook) turned violent is a stark reminder that sin and evil rage across every corner of every community of the country.

Here’s what we know:

During a “Black Lives Matter” rally last evening in downtown Dallas, 12 law enforcement officers and two civilians were shot.

Friends: This is the statement we sent out to the media today. Please continue to pray for our country. -JD

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Focus on the Family Responds to SCOTUS’ Hellerstedt Decision“The Supreme Court rejected… commonsense regulations prompted by ghastly history of Kermit Gosnell’s abortion activities. Making all surgery as safe as possible for women is common sense and pro-woman.”

Colorado Springs, Colo. – Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family, released the following statement today in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Whole Woman’s Health v.

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Daly Focus

Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.